Wednesday, November 29, 2006

UPDATE THURSDAY NOV. 30TH: We had more snow Weds. night and the power went of yet AGAIN at 8:30 PM! It went back on at about 10:40 AM this morning. I added some new photos at the end of this blog post. BCG

Me walking down our driveway; photo by Brian Grogan

NOTE: Why does snow cause such havoc in the lower mainland of BC and Vancouver Island? Because we don't get it very often! People aren't used to driving in it, it's often quite heavy and wet and breaks trees, which cut power lines (and there are ALOT of trees!), and cities don't have much snow-removing equipment. BCGTamale square from the freezer, reheated. I had experimented with a baked casserole made from real (but vegan) tamale dough with a vegan "chicken" filling sandwiched between. It was okay, but tasted undercooked and "stodgy". I had frozen two leftover pieces in the corn husks that I lined the casserole with, and I steamed them for our lunch on the first day. I had some of the red chile sauce left to serve with it, and I added some melted vegan mozza. The steaming really improved the texture and flavor...yum! I will be playing with this further! UPDATE 2011: The completed recipe is actually in my new book, World Vegan Feast! For "vegan butter", try my new recipe for palm oil-free "Buttah". PS: Our beautiful little cat Tina, in photos below, passed away.

What DH calls a "Boiled Dinner"-- an Eastern Canadian phrase that sounds unappetizing, but is actually "comfort food"! I cook sliced savoy cabbage and julienned carrots in vegan "chicken-style" broth, and serve with steamed potatoes and veggie sausages (in this case, Tofurkey "Keilbasa")-- mustard and vegan butter on the side.

(Oh-oh! The power went off for a minute or two as I was writing this [it's snowing again], and I lost some of it-- I'll keep trying and save more often! Update: It did it once again, but Dh came in and said the Hydro guys were working up on the corner. )

We have had two weeks of intermittent power outages on Denman and Hornby Islands, due to underwater hydro cables being repaired, and wind. But then we had a snow storm and the two islands (and much of BC's Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, which is not used to this sort of thing, and there are never enough snow plows!) lost power for two or more days.

Our poor plum tree!

There were also little local lines down, and that's what happened to us-- a beautiful big old maple tree on our road split in half and fell on the power lines, which were dragging near the ground in the driveway of one of our elderly neighbors. Since there were so many emergencies, we were out of power for 3 days, only getting it back yesterday morning around 8 am. (They did come and cut the tree off the line and make it possible for us to drive on the road.)

It's a bit of an adventure at first, and we were well into the swing of it from the week before, but during those past outages, we got the power back before dark. This time it was different-- it gets dark so early up here (around 5 pm) and gets light so late in the morning, that it gets pretty dreary.

Tina, one of our 3 cats, likes to play in the snow, but now I think she wants us to "turn it off"! UPDATE 2011: Unfortunately, our sweet little Tina succumbed to a fast-acting virus the next winter.

We had the bathtub full of water for washing and flushing the toilet (we do have a back-up outhouse, too);

View of the outhouse from our back deck, taken Nov. 30th

I had containers of drinking water; we have a good wood heater and candles (our one remaining kerosene lantern was acting up), and of course, flashlights (I kept a little one hooked to a belt-loop on my jeans!), and a battery-operated radio. We have a little butane stove and lots of food in the house.

Frying French toast on the butane burner by candlelight.

They plowed our road, so, though we have to walk up and down our quite long driveway to where the car is parked, we can get out and about. So, we have no reason to complain, really, but after 2 days we were having to remind ourselves that we are MUCH better off than most of the world, and to quit whining! (I know you Prairie and eastern Canadians are laughing at us!)

The worst part was the lack of light in the morning and evening. We would light about 6 candles and sit reading at the table, but would get so sleepy that we hit the sheets at about 8:30!

We did eat pretty well, though. The first day I felt like baking! But, of course, no oven. So, I made candy! I hardly ever make candy, but, I was bored! The first thing I made was my "Double Nut Clusters", which I sometimes make for Christmas. DH was in 7th heaven! Here's the recipe:

BRYANNA’S DOUBLE NUT CLUSTERS
Makes about 20 candies

As I’ve said before, I’m not much of a candy-maker. I like easy candy recipes, and you can’t get much easier than this! High in fat, though.

Combine and melt the chips and nut butter with the maple syrup and coconut oil in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the nuts. Drop by spoonfuls on waxed paper or parchment on cookie sheets. Refrigerate until firm.

Mix the water, bulgur, oat bran, ginger, cinnamon, and salt together in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, then turn down to low, cover and cook for about 15 minutes. Take off the heat and let sit for a few minutes, covered, if it isn't thick enough for you.

Stir in the flax seed. Serve with your favorite non-dairy milk and a little brown sugar or the sweetener of your choice.

Whisk together the batter ingredients. Soak the bread slices in this mixture in a medium-sized shallow baking pan, coating both sides of the bread thoroughly until all of the mixture is soaked up.

In the meantime, melt the first Tbs. vegan butter in a large nonstick skillet or stir-fry pan. Add the sliced apples and toss, then turn the heat to medium-low, cover, and poach until they are softened. Stir in the brown sugar and set aside.

Poaching apples by candleight on my butane burner.

Spread the panko (breadcrumbs) in a shallow dish and coat the soaked bread on both sides (add more panko if necessary).

Heat the last 1 Tbs. vegan butter in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bread slices and brown on both sides until golden and crispy.

Serve each serving (2 slices) topped with half of the poached apples, and some whipped topping, too, if you like!

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Sorry I haven't blogged, but I had not access to a computer! The power went on just as I was leaving for work this morning! So, I am at work and can't download pictures or anything. Tomorrow I will blog the photos and recipes that I made when the power was out, on my little butane burner and the woodstove!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

I'm tired of my breakfasts, for the most part. It was never my favorite meal to cook and, lately, I'm ashamed to say, I've had alot of Shredded Wheat! The occasional oatmeal with apples, which used to be my standard.

So, the day before yesterday I decided to challenge myself to make a variety of low-fat vegan breakfasts and post them maybe once a week on this blog. I'd love to hear about your breakfasts, or maybe even start a vegan meme on this theme!

The day before yesterday I had the scrambled tofu pictured above, made with my scrambler mix, green onions, mushrooms, red peppers, and a sprinkle of soy bacon bits, along with a piece of DH's homemade bread.

TO MAKE TOFU SCRAMBLERS:
Use 1/2 T. mix for each 4 oz. (about 1/2 c.) firm (regular, NOT silken) mashed tofu, or 1/4 c. mix for each lb.. (Shake or stir mix before measuring.) Use medium-firm tofu or even silken tofu if you like it softer.

**You can add some chopped veggie "Canadian bacon" or "ham", or veggie "bacon" chips or bits (I soak mine in boiling water and then drain, for a more ham-like taste and texture). You can add sauteed or steam-fried onions, green onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, etc., if you like. IN THE MICROWAVE, I just place the chopped veggies in the bottom of the dish, put the tofu on top, and cook as usual, then mix in the veggies.

Scramblers can be used in breakfast burritos (along with some vegan cheeze, such as Tofutti Soya-Cheese, if you like) made with wholewheat flour tortillas, topped with salsa; or to make vegan "Huevos" Rancheros, among other things.

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Yesterday I had an unusual craving for cottage cheese with pineapple!???! So I made my tofu "cottage cheese" from my book "Soyfoods Cooking for a Positive Menopause". Just the ticket with a piece of cinnamon toast! Had it today, too, with a soy cappuccino, 'cause I'm in a hurry to get to town (THE POWER IS GOING TO BE OUT ALL DAY!!!) to go shopping.

Tofu "Cottage Cheese" with pineapple

BRYANNA'S TOFU "COTTAGE CHEESE"

This is delicious with chives and/or chopped vegetables, or with pineapple tidbits.

Sprinkle 1/2 tsp. of the salt on the mashed tofu in a medium bowl. In the food processor mix the silken tofu, remaining salt, sugar and lemon juice until VERY smooth. Scoop into the bowl with the mashed tofu and mix gently. Refrigerate.

Our little islands (Denman and Hornby) have an additional problem. Here is the explanation from BC Hydro:

"Service to Denman Island is provided as three-phase, at 25,000 volts using three relatively old submarine cables that are near their end of life. An extra cable (fourth) is used as a spare cable for back up and is relatively new in comparison. Service is continued from Denman Island to Hornby Island.

BC Hydro initiated a planned outage on Sunday to test the condition
of the four undersea cables that serve Denman Island. Service was restored back to normal later that day after successfully completing the tests. On Monday, in the early morning, one of the undersea cables faulted and resulted in a power outage. We switched power to the fourth or spare undersea cable and re-energized the circuit. Later that same day, a second undersea cable faulted.

The service to both island's is now at single-phase, 14,400 volts.
For residential customers this means business as usual. However, for commercial customers such as the Co-op and schools, that use three-phase power, the current service is insufficient and requires a three-phase diesel generator. We are working with those customers for short-term solutions.

With the age and condition of these failed cables, they must be replaced. BC Hydro is now developing a plan to replace all three of the original aged submarine cables (approximately 6000 meters), as well as the two failed cables, with new cables with more capacity. This will improve reliability to the islands. BC Hydro will be removing the failed cables, lay the new cables, and tie in the new equipment to return Denman and Hornby to three-phase power. At this time we are unsure how long this process will take, but we hope to begin the seven days of work beginning Monday. There will be a few planned, short duration outages during this work. We will update you on Monday with more information, and the planned outages, as the plan comes together.

Thank you for your patience.

The outage on Wednesday and Thursday was due to extreme winds and trees contacting our lines. At one point on Wednesday we had just over 200,000 customers without power throughout the BC Hydro system."

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Oh, well-- what can you do? Just be prepared.

In the meantime, I'm getting this blog done!

We had a kind of fancy Saturday breakfast this morning-- baked (therefore lower in fat) vegan French toast with berries and whipped "cream", and soy cappuccinos!

I used the vegan whipped topping in a pressurized can, Soyatoo, which is quite delicious! It comes from Germany and is trans-fat-free! (UPDATE: I now prefer the whippaple version in the tetrapack box.)

Kids (of all ages!) love French toast. This recipe eliminates the usual eggs, milk, and butter. High-fiber, essential-fatty-acid-rich flaxseeds (and a little powdered egg replacer) take the place of eggs.

This is an orange-flavored version and is topped with a mixed-berry (that’s what “bumbleberry” means!) sauce containing very little sugar! The whipped topping is optional.

This method is handy for cooking for a crowd— just multiply the recipe as needed.

Blend together the batter ingredients in a blender until smooth. Soak the bread slices in this mixture in a 9x13” glass pan while the oven heats up. Turn the slices over a few times to make sure they are evenly soaked.

Place the soaked slices on a nonstick or lightly-oiled DARK cookie sheet (dark pans brown better), sprayed with oil from a pump sprayer. Spray the tops a little bit, too. Bake 10 minutes in the bottom third of the oven (use convection, if you have it),

then turn and bake about 5 minutes more, or until golden and crispy on the underside.

WHILE THE FRENCH TOAST IS BAKING, make the Bumbleberry Sauce. Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly; OR microwave in a medium, deep microwave-safe bowl (deep in order to avoid splashes) for about 2 minutes, or until thickened and bubbly.

Serve hot over the French toast.

VARIATION: Overnight French Toast: Soak the slices in a double recipe of batter (in an oiled shallow baking dish) overnight in the refrigerator. (You can use a crusty bread, cut 1/2" thick, if you like.) Then cook in the oven, as above.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Okay, this is Take 3! I’ve been trying to write this blog entry for quite some time now, but the power went off AGAIN! So, I’m writing this on Word, which saves automatically every minute, and I hope to actually post it soon!

It began yesterday, with a planned outage, supposedly to check the underwater cables between Denman and Hornby Islands and the Big Island (Vancouver Island). Power went back on in the afternoon and we thought we were all set. I got up at midnight and the power was off again! No storm. We woke up early and phoned BC Hydro…got their automated message that they were investigating and it should be on again at noon. Of course, it was a Stat Holiday today (for Remembrance Day, which was actually on Saturday), so you couldn’t get a human being on the phone! Long story short-- power went on again at 9:15 am; off again at 10:20; on again at 2: 35, and since then it’s been off and on about 4 times, with dimming in between! Arrrggghhh! I’m taking a chance having the computer on at all. I’ve sneaked in a shower and some laundry.

DH worked at the bakery today, which was challenge because, though the ovens are propane, they need electricity for the proofer and slicer and mixers. They eventually got a generator in, but could only use one machine at a time, and had to knead LARGE batches by hand at times.

It has been very quiet these last two days, but I had time to organize a lot of papers and do a good, long weight routine! We are actually in pretty good shape for outages, with an emergency outhouse, a butane cooker, candles and kerosene lamps, a plug-in phone, etc… But water is tricky, as we are on a well with an electric pump. If you aren’t prepared, you have to pray for rain and collect water in buckets! (Luckily, it rained today!)

Anyway, last night, while the power was on, DH requested ginger cookies. I shouldn’t be making cookies while I’m doing WW, but… it was treat! I took an old recipe of mine and cut the fat in half by substituting corn syrup for 1/2 the Earth Balance. I also cut out the chilling step for the dough and just rolled the soft dough in sugar. They are crispy and delish!

BRYANNA'S BIG, CRISP GINGER-MOLASSES COOKIES
Makes 24 cookies
Good dunkers! Idea: replace all or some of the the corn syrup with applesauce and perhaps get a softer, chewier version.

Cream together the Earth Balance and the sugar in a medium bowl, then blend in the corn syrup and molasses. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and spices. Add the dissolved soda to the molasses mixture, then the flour mixture. Mix well.

Have two large greased or nonstick cookie sheets ready. Also have a flat soup bowl or plate with some unbleached sugar in it ready. Scoop balls of the dough about the size of a large walnut out with a tablespoon and drop them into the sugar Carefully turn the blob of dough until it's covered with sugar and more-or-less round. Place the dough mounds on the cookie sheets with plenty of room between them (they spread).

Now, if you want thin cookies, press them down with the bottom of a smooth glass dipped in sugar (as in picture).

If you want them thicker, leave "as is".

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the bottoms are slightly browned. Place the pans on racks and immediately cut the cookies apart from eachother with a table knife, and then, with a thin spatula, loosen them from the pan. (If you don't do this right away, it will be hard to get them off the pan after they cool!) Allow to cool on the pans on the racks for about 10 minutes.

I’ve been working on seitan recipes:UPDATE, NOVEMBER 2014: Obviously, my plan for a seitan cookbook never materialized. I still have plans for it, though. If I can't find a publisher (and the ones I've talked to seem reluctant because of the gluten-free mania), I may just do it as an e-book. Any ideas?

"Neatballs" are an invention of mine to make vegan "meatballs" that don't fall apart in a sauce. This time I also made them into "keftas" (ovals).

Uncooked vegan "neatballs" and "keftas" (or "lady's thighs"!!)

The same, rolled in flour and ready to bake

Baked

Cooking the keftas in a cumin-tomato sauce-- they plump up nicely!

Ready to be devoured!

The following pictures are of my tender, sliceable vegan "pork tenderloin" roast, which I rubbed with a garlic-herb mixture and I also inserted slivers of garlic into it when I baked it before serving.

I invented a vegan "kebab meat" and made shish kebab with it on Saturday. DH LOVED them!

Thursday, November 9, 2006

I haven't been blogging much-- been updating my website, and catching up with work in general (except for housework, which is slated for this weekend-- oh joy!)! But I have been cooking quite a bit, working on recipes for the next newsletter, and making seitan .

This morning I made another soup from Deborah Madison's soup book and it was very tasty!

MY VERSION OF DEBORAH MADISON'S CREAM OF SPLIT AND FRESH PEA SOUP

This is another recipe I tried from Deborah Madison's book "Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison' s Kitchen" (here's another one I veganized). Again, I lowered the fat by 3 Tbs. in total, and veganized it by using my homemade Tofu Sour Creme instead of half-and-half and lemon juice. I added more flavor by using a good vegetarian bouillon instead of water and salt. (I also eliminated the 2 Tbs. parsley because I didn't have any!) This soup gave me a chance to try out the smoked pimenton I bought in Portland.

Put the split peas on to soak in hot tap water while you prepare the other ingredients.

In a soup pot, heat the oil; then sauté the onions, carrots, celery, half the rosemary, and bay leaves over medium heat, stirring often, until softened and a little browned. Stir in the garlic and smoked paprika and stir-cook for a few minutes more.

Drain the split peas and add them to the pot with the broth. Bring to a boil, then turn down, cover and simmer for 1 hour, or til the peas start to break up. Add the frozen peas and cook for a few minutes.

Puree the soup in the pot with a hand immersion blender until smooth (or blend in two batches in a blender. (Caution: take the middle part of the blender lid out and cover it with a clean, folded tea towel while blending-- this prevents explosions of hot soup!

Add the Tofu Sour Creme and lemon zest to the soup and stir well while heating gently. taste for salt, pepper, etc. You can add more smoked paprika, lemon juice, lemon zest,e etc., according to your taste.

Melt the Earth Balance in a nonstick skillet. When hot, add the bread cubes and toss over medium-low heat for 6-8 minutes, or until crisp.

Add the remaining rosemary, a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon juice and stir until crispy again.

As you can see in picture of the soup, I ate this soup with some thin slices of that dark Dutch rye pumpernickel bread that comes in sort of blocks. My dad used to buy that for us and we ate it with cream cheese and lots of other things. It still reminds me of him! I could eat it like candy, even though it's very nutritious. Actually, it's not hard to make:

BRYANNA'S DUTCH PUMPERNICKEL BREAD2 small loaves
If you've never tried those little loaves of firm, dark, thinly-sliced pumpernickel bread that you see in delis, you're in for a treat! If you have some sourdough starter, it's really easy to make. It's chewy and moist and keeps well. You can start it the night before and let sit overnight to ferment. Here's a link to my post on vegan sourdough starter.

Stir together the molasses, boiling water, bulgur, salt and oil and let stand until lukewarm. Add the remaining ingredients and let sit in a warm place for at least 8 hours. Knead the dough briefly, flouring the board with whole wheat flour, then press into two greased fruitcake loaf pans (3x5"). Cover with foil and let stand 30 minutes (you won't notice any rising). Set in a cold oven, turn it to 275°F. and bake for 2 hours. Turn out on a rack to cool, covering with a clean towel. The bread will keep, well-wrapped for several weeks, or can be frozen (slice first). Slice very thinly.

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